WARWICK — A fire appeared to collapse at least part of the roof of a building at a Pennsylvania Granite Corp. site in the township Thursday morning.

Reported around 9:10 a.m., the fire appeared to cause half the roof of a two-story, long, white building to collapse. It was not apparent what the window-lined building was used for.

The building was up a driveway in a wooded area off of Trythall Road, about half a mile up from Route 23.

Part of the roof that was still intact looked to be on the other side of a fire wall, but that could not be confirmed.

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Initially, black smoke rose several hundred feet into the air from the fire, but as firefighters brought the blaze under control, the smoke turned whitish and by 11 a.m. it had stopped rising and hung mainly around the collapsed section of the roof.

Twin Valley Fire Company took the lead at the scene that involved many different companies including Ridge, Kimberton, Ludwig’s Corner, North Coventry, Caernarvon, Birdsboro, Glen Moore and Honey Brook Fire Companies.

Because of the relatively rural area in which the building was situated, water from fire hydrants was hard to come by. It was unconfirmed whether the fire companies were able to use one, if any existed, in the area, but a steady line of tanker trucks were used to supply water to the scene.

On Trythall Road, tanker trucks parked near the driveway and hooked up to provide water. As the water was depleted from each tanker, a new one was rotated in.

A line of trucks was formed on Tryphall Road just south of the scene, on standby.

Around 11 a.m., a Met-Ed truck headed down Trythall toward the scene, though it was unclear if that was related to the fire or not.

Reporters were not allowed into the scene by the property’s owners, so details on where the fire started, how much damage it caused and all the fire companies involved was not available.

According to online sources, Pennsylvania Granite Corp. is owned by the Rock of Ages Corp., a quarry company which produces granite. An article from a trade magazine, Stone World, posted in 2001 related that Pennsylvania Granite Corp. specialized in producing black granite.